We like wars, don’t we? In last 3,400 years of recorded history, mankind has been in absolute peace for just 268 years (not in one stretch) – that is just 8% of the recorded history. So, it is irrefutable that we humans like war. Some of these wars were for meaningful reasons, most of them were out of greed and some out of sheer stupidity. When it comes to second category of war, we mostly look down at Europe and when we speak of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, we point our fingers to England! Yes, Britain always had this thing called ‘Greed’ and combine it with stupidity, they have the stronghold on what we call meaningless wars! The War of the Golden Stool is one such meaningless war. Let us learn 30 interesting War of the Golden Stool facts and find out what we really want to convey here.

Interesting War of the Golden Stool Facts: 1-10

1. The War of the Golden Stool is also known by the names Ashanti Uprising, Third Ashanti Expedition and Yaa Asantewaa War.

2. The rival parties were United Kingdom (actually British Imperial Government of Gold Coast) and Empire of Ashanti.

3. The war was fought over a Golden Stool from March 1900 to September 1900.

4. The Empire of Ashanti had a throne made of pure gold. It was the Golden Stool over which the war was fought.

5. For people of Ashanti, the stool was not just the symbol of their sovereignty but also it was considered very sacred.

6. Just how sacred was the stool? Well, only and only the chief was entitled to sit on it. When we say chief, we mean the mortal king made of flesh, blood and bones. Apart from that the only other entities that were allowed to sit on the stool were the immortal souls of the living, yet to be born and the dead.

7. Now, the empire was under Imperial rule and as expected, an uprising began (we all know the reason for such uprisings because we all know how the Brits liked to loot everything from their colonies and claim as their own).

8. The Brits managed to put down the uprising and arrested the Ashanti King and sent him to exile.

9. Sir Frederick Mitchell Hodgson was the governor there who displayed unfathomed and unparalleled stupidity. What he did was he went to Kumasi (a city in Empire of Ashanti) and declared that since the King was exiled and the Ashanti lands were ruled by the Queen of England, the Ashanti people better get him the Golden Stool so that he, being a representative of a paramount power, can sit on it.

10. Guess what? That was too much for the Ashanti people. The very idea of a foreigner ass-defiling the embodiment and symbol of their state and people was just plain and simple – intolerable.

Interesting War of the Golden Stool Facts: 11-20

11. Ejisu dominion’s queen mother – Yaa Asantewaa became so furious that she immediately summoned the Ashanti people to revolt, attack and retrieve the exiled King.

12. Thousands of volunteers came in, forming quite a handsome force of more than 2000 people.

13. In the meantime, Captain Cecil Armitage was sent by Hodgson to find and retrieve the stool. Armitage took a handful of troops for the search-and-retrieve operation when the Ashanti people under the leadership of Yaa Asantewaa attacked them.

14. Most of the British soldiers were killed but by a stroke of luck, a sudden and unexpected rainstorm helped a few of the soldiers to escape the ambush.

15. The soldiers who managed to escape returned to Kumasi and reported the same. The offices were immediately fortified and guarded by 4 Maxium Guns and 6 small field guns.

16. The Ashanti people did realize that they were in no position to storm to fortified area and hence settled in for a long seize by sniping out defenders, blocking food supplies, cutting off telegraph lines and other means.

17. Those in the fortifications were pinned down but soon got disease ridden along with shortage of food. So in June, 700 men were sent to rescue Hodgson and others who were trapped in.

18. The new rescue team managed to get Hodgson and his wife out of there but many of the others who tried to get out were killed by the Ashanti people who pursued the fleeing people.

19. Escaped Hodgson managed to get to the coast where another 1000 men from various units of British army were gathered. Under command of Major James Willcocks, the unit managed to reach Kumasi but only after dealing with heavy casualties because of unconventional war tactics used by the Ashanti people and their allies.

20. Eventually the Brits did manage to defeat the Ashanti forces. There were more than 2,000 casualties on Ashanti side and 1,007 casualties on British side.

Interesting War of the Golden Stool Facts: 21-30

21. Though the Brits eventually win the war, the Ashanti people continued to claim that they won the war despite their defeat. Such a claim came from the fact that the Brits never managed to find the Golden Stool that they so badly wanted to ass-defile.

22. After the war, many Ashanti leaders including Yaa Asantewaa were captured and exiled.

23. Yaa Asantewaa stayed in Seychelles islands and died there in 1923.

24. As far as the Golden Stool was concerned, it was hidden by Ashanti people in forest during the war.

25. The Brits continued to search for the stool for next 20 years but it was eventually found accidentally by a group of laborers.

26. Those laborers could not resist their greed and took away the golden ornaments of the stool and when that happened, the Ashanti people looked upon the chair as powerless and robbed of its sacred stature.

27. Those laborers were captured by Ashanti people and as a punishment of their misdeed, they were sentenced to death.

28. The Brits interfered (which was pretty ironical because had they been in place of the Ashanti people, they would have probably had the laborers hanged publicly) and sent those laborers to exile.

29. When the war ended, Ashanti was annexed into British Empire.

30. Despite being annexed into British Empire, Ashanti maintained de facto independence and ruled themselves with little to no reference to colonial power.

1 comment

BernaldoJanuary 21, 2019 - 6:14 am

This is a unique history that should have being thought worldwide. The fact that the Ashanti Kingdom possessed Golden Throne is something no kingdom on earth has ever had. I believe this is an act of the Creator himself and anyone who have studied the history and culture of the Ashantis would know everything about this kingdom is out of this world. Furthermore, the God giving power the Ashanti Empire possessed was one that no one could resist even the British colonist. Various books have been written about the Ashanti Empire yet the wider world controlled by the elite have managed to keep this history undercover. The fact that most of the African Empires are no longer in existence yet the Ashanti Empire now the Ashanti kingdom still exists in its glory. Which means that the hand of God upholds this great Kingdom in its entirety, Thank you for sharing this wonderful history of a unique people.